BREMERTON — The Navy has decided to store the USS Enterprise until experts can thoroughly analyze how to best dismantle its eight de-fueled reactor plants.

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is the only U.S. shipyard that recycles nuclear-powered ships. Since 1984, it has completed 129 submarine and cruiser reactor compartment packages and shipped them to Hanford Nuclear Reservation for burial. The Enterprise, commissioned in 1961, is the world's first nuclear-powered carrier.

The ship was deactivated in 2012 at Virginia's Norfolk Naval Station and towed across the harbor to Newport News Shipbuilding to de-fuel the reactors. The work should be completed in August, after which the Navy had planned to tow the Enterprise around South America to Bremerton for the final recycling.

With PSNS facing a large workload maintaining the active fleet, the Navy began exploring whether private industry could recycle the reactor compartments, which still bear some radioactivity. In August, it requested proposals for the work.

On Dec. 19, 20 members of Congress including Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, and U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, sent a letter to former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, raising concerns about the private sector disposing of reactor compartments and asking him to reconsider.

Director of Naval Reactors Adm.James F. Caldwell Jr. replied Friday. The request for proposals has been canceled, he wrote. The Enterprise will be placed in storage at a site to be determined until the path to dispose of its reactor compartments is selected. It will come from three alternatives: PSNS, a private shipyard or placing the ship in intermediate-range storage and deferring the decision until later. An environmental review will be performed to evaluate the alternatives.

Caldwell, a former commander of Submarine Group 9 at Bangor, said the Navy considering private companies isn't a slap at PSNS; it's just the opposite.

"My desire to support PSNS & IMS and the operational fleet is precisely why the Navy has been exploring the alternative of full-ship commercial disposal of ex-CVN 65, including the reactor plants," he wrote.

The Navy's four shipyards are challenged to execute their main mission of maintaining the active fleet. As demand for ships to fighting wars and patrolling seas increases, so does the workload.

"PSNS & IMF is challenged to execute their current and projected workload with their current manning level and existing facilities," Caldwell wrote. "In the meantime, the eight de-fueled nuclear reactor plants onboard ex-CVN 65 represent a level of work that is an order of magnitude larger than any previous nuclear-powered warship disposal effort. While the Navy will fulfill its responsibility to safely and effectively dispose of ex-CVN 65, I must carefully take into consideration the impact my recommendation has on the operational fleet."

The Navy will choose an approach that can be technically executed, is environmentally responsible and a sensible use of resources, Caldwell said.

Kilmer said he was standing up for local jobs.

"Puget Sound Naval Shipyard has a long and successful record of doing this work, and our nation must invest in our region to continue that tradition," he said. "I will continue to work with our senators and local workers to protect our economy and national security.”

The Enterprise is the only ship of its class. It served during the Cuban Missile Crisis, through the Vietnam War and made its 24th and final deployment in 2011, launching 1,450 air strikes into Afghanistan.

The next aircraft carrier in line to retire is Bremerton-based USS Nimitz, the first of 10 ships in its class. It is 42 years old. Its service life is about 50 years. Nimitz-class carriers are powered by two large nuclear reactors instead of eight small ones.